Jamesbo

Allan, Sorry for the bad service but happy Fusick's did their usual good job.

We could go on about parts place kid "experts" forever. I've found the quickest way to get the "Deer in the headlights" look is give them a $20 bill for a $10.65 item, let them ring it up and just when they're starting to give you change, Pull 65 cents out of your pocket and give it to them.

They are so used to using the computers and credit cards..............they have no clue how to make change.

Eightupman

Ok hold on a sec, and let me give you a little "behind the scenes" of the shift in the life of a parts monkey. My wife has worked for Advance for almost 10 years now. She has never turned a wrench and only gets dirty with me in the garage every now and again. It IS the Advance, AZ, and Orielly policy to answer the phone first the take care of that customer BECAUSE corperate office will make random calls to stores to play customer and see if the standard operating procedure is followed.

As far as the ASC certifications? They (the parts monkeys) don't get paid any more than someone without one. It's just a notch on thier belt. ASE Certification means nothing more than you can pass a paper test, and has NOTHING to do with your hands on experience.

Sadly, Advance will NOT hire a guy/girl with REAL automotive experience because they can pay them less. Its probably the same for the others. NAPA is the only store I can think of where the guys have brains in thier heads... BUT thier prices reflect such. Well there is a local place called Parks that still uses the old school catalogs that has bailed me out on several occasions.. and open until 11... but I digress...

Can't help the overenthusiastic undertrained morons though... "you get what you pay for"

And for hardware, I go to ACE hardware. Its actually cheaper... and bins upon bins of selection.

John

oldcutlass

Wow, our parts houses here in my local town are great. The guy that cut my drums n rotors allowed me to stand right there, and I told him to just take enough off to smooth them out. I did not want huge rough cuts, and asked to have multiple small passes.

The guys here are a liitle more mechanically inclined and work on their cars, so they understand where I'm coming from. Granted in the last 9 years I've spent a lot of chili in their stores, but I don't think that effects the service I receive.

ah64pilot

John, don't get me wrong. I have no problem with someone that says "I don't know" or "let me find out". NO PROBLEM at all. It's the supermechanic behind the counter that "knows" everything. When I say ASE certification I mean a mechanic's cert. If the parts guy knows everything like he thinks he does then why isn't he an ASE certified MECHANIC making $30 per flag hour? THOSE are the guys I'm griping about.

The guys that really do know a lot or the sweet little girls behind the counter that look up your part and pull it for you and have no clue wtf it is...those I can handle. Especially this one at my local O'Reilly...whew! Anyway...it's bucktooth Bobby acting like he just retired from a NASCAR team that bug me

Sorry Allan, we can get back to the same "BAT" channel now

Allan R

Thanks Mike and Steve.

Went to Part Source to get the drums. Chung was behind the counter. He says "Can I help you?" I said loudly "No, I'd rather wait for someone who knows what customer service really is." Felt like adding "Dumbass" but why throw fuel on the fire, so I didn't. Waited for Sean to finish dealing with his customer. 20.00 later (tax in) I walked out with a nicely machined set of drums.

Stop at NAPA and return the other drums. Showed them the discrepancies. They apologized and took them back no problem. Great customer service. Ran into a buddy (Al - he's a gear head works for CN Rail) I haven't seen for 1/2 year. Asked if he wanted to help do my engine next year and he's good with that. Things were looking up. 102.00 in my pocket later and I'm on my way home.

Stopped in at AD and asked how much to blast the brake drums. They said 20.00. Sold! I'll pick them up with the rest of my order. (much easier than me spending a couple hours / drum huh? Brian - see I'm learning) My bud Peter has his shop 100 ft away so I stopped in to say hi! He's got a 70 Cutlass coming in next Tues. Said I should stop in and have a look, so what the heck. I will. Lessee now, gotta tie a Cutlass around my lil finger so I don't forget

Joanne phoned and asked me to stop at the grocery store and get Graeme some stuff he picked out in the flyer. That and some other sundries - 55.17 for 5 bags! Then the nice lady at the cash asked if I wanted to 'redeem' our points. Well Joanne knows better than to send me shopping so I asked "How much". "You can redeem 55.00 worth" she said with a smile. I pulled out .17 and said "Yeah, let's do that". I felt really good. 5 bags of groceries for .17??? Ya hoooooo! Run to the car before they change their mind.

Anyway - enough digression. Now I feel better and should get to work on some of the many unfinished things that still need doing. Get you updated later.

Allan R

After this mornings fiasco I had to really concentrate on what I was doing. Taping off the u-joints was a major task but I got it done. I think they came out really nice. This is one of the reasons that I didn't want to replace a perfectly good set of joints - the Saginaw symbol shows through pretty decent.


I taped 'exactly' where the old stripes were. Anyone else ever notice that the stripes weren't laid out perfectly? Anyway I matched them width for width and size for size. Came out looking like this. Told you those u-joint caps would pop when I was done with them.


I'm not really happy with the yellow stripe - there was some very minor bleeding. I will have to wait a couple days for the paint to cure more before attempting to fix or clear this. I don't know if it's really worth all that effort for a piece that isn't really going to be seen by anyone. What do you think? And just for comparison here's that pic of the driveshaft just after I took it out of the car

Lady72nRob71

Driveshaft came out nice..
Awesome service by Fusicks. Their shipping and "service charge" always irritated me, but I only order from them when I have enough to make it worthwhile.
Too bad about the brake drum issues - I hope that they are not egg-shaped inside now... I once gave Oreilys a rotor to turn since it got grooved by the pad rivets. I got it home and it was very wobbly. They did it again and it was better but still wobbly. It was too thin to do again and I lost my faith in them. I can feel it in the pedal a little but not enough to change two rotors for chinesium ones.

sammy

Why sripes on a driveshaft? You can laugh , but I really do not have a clue

Allan R

I'm just glad they came through on this. I wasn't expecting anything so it was a pleasant surprise.

Stripes were used to identify which drive shaft went into what car. Different ones for 350/350, 455/400, VC and Sedans. Kind of like the front stabilizer bars - they have different configurations on the end to identify which one to use. Don't know if that helps you or not?

Allan R

Well that's a two fold thing.

First let's look at the drive shaft collars and bolts. Ok I also put in the brake guides. They were all adopted by the Lee family. Out of kindness the family gave them all one name so they would easily be recognized. The name? Ug of course


Took some doing, but they ended up looking like this after a very light coat of metal cast. I like the look and they will be even nicer when they are holding that spiffy drive shaft in place.



Now REMEMBER what I said the other day about checking your parts BEFORE you leave the parts store? I ended up taking the brake drums back because of that. Well lard tunderin jaysus an Mary! They did it to me again. On the same order I had included new wheel cylinders. Good thing too because the bleeder in one of the OEM's busted off in the cylinder. (I was toying with rebuilding them just for fun) So I took out the wheel cylinder bolts and cleaned them. Decided I should check and see if the new wheel cylinders used the same bolt thread. Color me snickle fritzed! The WC on the left is the one I checked before I left the store. The one on the right is the one I didn't. WTH is going on here? They aren't even the same design. Wonder if the rusty one is made in Argentina?? Anyway I'm NOT putting that on my car. It's also going back. If NAPA can't get me a proper set of matching wheel cylinders I'll go somewhere else. BTW, the one on the left very closely matches the OEM Delco Moraine that came out. The one on the right must be for a chebby?

Allan R

Well when I first took off the bumper brackets I thought they might be in good enough shape to just clean and put back. No way! Besides I found out something about the mounting that I needed to know.

Remember when I mentioned the rear bumper bracket did not have the proper bolts in them when I took them out? Well I found the evidence I needed from the factory placement of the bumper. And what you also can't see is on the other side of these brackets, there's some small patches of thick surface rust.


The circular ring is the lock washer from the factory. The smaller round impression that's to the left shows how much difference there was in the mounting position Ken put back - with non locking washers too.


Used my palm sander, my rotary air sander and hand sanding to get the surface fairly smooth and ready for paint


After paint they look a heck of a lot nicer.


The back up lights came out of hiding today. Used oven cleaner to get some of the grime off the gasket where the weather and (you guessed it) - more of that dang undercoat. They cleaned up really nice. I inserted the pigtail, seated a bulb, inserted the clean gasket and screwed on the lens. Last I put the plastic fitting on the spade connector. I now have 2 fully restored back up lights ready for installation on the new bumper. Didn't have time for the tag light today.

oldsguybry

Everything seems to be made like crap today .... On a happier note ..... I really like the way everything turned out with that Metal Cast spray ! I got to get me some of that .

Allan R

Bryan, for the metal cast to work right you need really clean metal. Spray a light coat and wait for about 10 minutes - it changes from clear to a slightly darker color that is translucent. I experimented with spraying it over cast and silver and it gives really great results that way too.

Allan R

On a + note, just got off the phone with NAPA and they have the right ones in stock. Going to head down there before traffic gets stupid.

Tony72Cutlass'S'

Unless Rob is in town :O

Also, need to be sure to have an OEM air temperature sensor under the air cleaner ( the green one) I heard he's notorious for looking under unsuspecting air cleaners...

Allan R

LOL, If Rob comes up for a visit and wants to crawl under my car I'm not going to stop him. At least he won't get dirty.

I know where to get replacement sensors for the air cleaner, but not the AC Delco brand. That would be for concourse correct and I'm just not that picky. At this point in time a white sensor is just fine as long as it is fully functional. I'll look on some of my other air cleaners and see if I can find any that are still good.

Allan R

I'm going to buy a sand blaster. Enough sanding and grinding. My Mrs gave me the nod to go ahead.

ah64pilot

Oh man! Would you come talk to mine? Holy crap! I'm coming to Edmonton for the next one...you've got all the goodies

oldsguybry

It's about time !

I had question ..... Whats the best way to figure out what parts under the car get a certain color , like the Metal Cast color , or a clear color , black color ...... etc....etc... Do you just look for detailed underbody photos or.........

Allan R

I'm still at the stage of working to prep some of the smaller parts while waiting for the differential to come back.

When I placed the order for the fuel sender, I ordered the wrong part and got the sender with the 1/4" return line. (no I didn't have the tank out at the time to see which one I had, and wasn't smart enough to crawl under there and see if there was a return line going there either)

Anyway the sender is exactly the same as the single outlet except for that return line. My solution was to crimp the return line, flux and solder fill the return and cap it with a rubber plug. I know the plug isn't needed but it makes the unit look a little better.

Could I have sent this back and got the right one? Absolutely. That would cost a little over 110.00 But for a couple cents of solder and 10 minutes of my time? I've got the same functionality. So I learned more about the research needed and $$ management in this endeavor. Sometimes you just have to use some good judgement and know how to fix what you have. Many of you know the cold hard fact of that I'm sure.

oldsguybry

I was waiting for a sarcastic answer like....... Why don't you just look under your car dummy , but I guess I meant , what looks the best , or what colors do you guys usually go with .

Allan R

Stupid pride sometimes gets me into trouble of my own doing. Well car related anyway. Seriously, I gave careful consideration to the urging some of you gave about the parts would be better media blasted for better results, and did just that for the Control Arms and the brake drums.

Little things like the tail light pods? Well I CAN DO THAT MYSELF!! Stupid stupid stupid! Pride says yes, all those little angles and crevices just laughed hysterically and said 'Go for it dummy'.

The tail lamp housings still get a lot of crap thrown at them in spite of the gravel guards in front of them. The part I don't like is the bulb socket has a plastic pass through for the wiring, which is crimped AFTER the wires go through. That makes it impossible to remove them like the backup lights and tag light. The boot will slide back to reveal this set up.



I did not want to work on cleaning these with the wires still attached. So I did what I thought was the right thing. I cut the bulb contacts off the wires and slid them through the socket. I will reattach them later with solder and shrink wrap. This is what you end up with. Note that the original color is showing through on the inside of the upper pod. It's white! That will make spraying this a lot easier with just one color. What I DON'T like is that the sockets are at different angles. That makes it harder to get in and clean around them. Great GM engineering.


The inside of the housing is actually in decent shape, but it will get the clean up and restore it deserves. You can see the 2 wire holes in that plastic part of the socket pretty easy here.


After using my rotary air sander, wire wheels and dremel it was apparent I was not getting the results I wanted. This represents almost 1 hour of work. It's not smooth and there's still a lot of crud in the little pockets that were gusseted for the bumper mount screws. This is what finally put the icing on the cake in regards to buying a media blaster! I haven't touched the inside of the pods yet and I know it will be pure hell with just wire wheels and grinders.


The gaskets had some built up crud on them, so I sprayed them down with oven cleaner and let them sit in the 75° heat (sun) for an hour or two. Wash clean and spray with degreaser, scrub and they end up like this. Not bad for a 40 year old gasket! These are the same rubber silicone material (OEM) as the park lights, only in grey. The repop stuff isn't even close to the same quality - they use foam rubber that is far less dense or effective. This is very tedious work, but very intrinsically rewarding.

Allan R

Bryan, you know it's not my nature to be sarcastic. Your question is 100% valid. BTW, as you see, I combined your posts to just one. I spent a fair bit of time looking at restorations (some good some iffy) + looking at info in the Assembly Manual. I also ask others doing restos the same question you did. In some cases the answer is printed in the AM. Great, one less headache there. Other times I just have to make a logical or educated decision on what 'looks' good and what detracts.

Eg: The drive shaft was uncoated metal, but I elected to protect the entire shaft with metal cast after completely stripping all the crud off it. Others will for correctness buff it to perfection and clear it.

Eg: last year I painted the intermediate shaft on my steering in cast when the OEM color was black. IMO the cast just looked better. There are literally thousands of options you can choose when you're doing your build. Choose the one that you like, not just the ones others tell you to do. And since neither of us are building Barrett Jackson cars? You be the judge.

Eg: on the differential I'm planning to try painting the pumpkin aluminum to match the W27 cover I'm putting on. The shaft to yoke collars and bolts? They are as close to coming out of the factory as you can get. The yoke on the diff will likely be white (just to show the contrast between the diff and shaft).

Since I'm not going for the concourse look, small details aren't as critical. If I was going to do concours I'd need a LOT of money and be doing a frame off with parts going out for powder coat, polishing, and plating and spending years researching the correctness of everything. But I don't have that kind of time or ambition. Does that help?

I may respectfully suggest that others like Brian (69442C) who has done a full blown frame off resto on a 69 442 is one of many experts on this site who can give you valuable info on your quest. You know the drill for starting a thread...duh....Just be prepared for all the 'opinions' you'll get Some will be 100% factual and possibly critical, others will be personal interpretations but insightful, and still others will be waaaayyyyy off topic from the original theme of the thread and just distracting....

oldsguybry

Thanks Allen for taking the time to type this up . It really helps !

I know I can fit in this category somewhere at times and I'm also learning that you have to take what someone else typed with a grain of salt , because it's hard to sometimes get what people are REALLY trying to say when it comes down to it . There could be multiple meanings ...... Get my meaning ?

Allan R

You're welcome. Yes, I think we all fit into that category at some point or another. Interpretation of text can be subject to any number of errors by both the writer and the reader.

ctsplicer

Allan,I really like the cut of your jibb.You are about as **** as I am,and I love it.You are as detail oriented as I am.The guy I rent my garage from comes out and laughs at me all the time.He just couldn't believe that I would media blast the inside of the doors and quarter panels,smooth them out with high build primer and then paint them as I would the rest of the car.His question,who's gonna see it?my answer ,well ,you just did.He just walks away laughing.As my dad used to say ,detail,detail,detail.By the way,you will love having your own blaster,I have a big freestanding one and a large cabinet.I can't imagine being without either one.

Allan R

Thank you ct! You're right about the details. For anyone else it doesn't matter, to me it does. Looks like you are slightly more detail orientated than me and have some better skills too.

I'm looking at 2 blasters. 1 is a larger freestanding (349.00) - holds 50 lbs of media. The other is a bench model that's somewhat smaller but on sale for 1/2 price (125.00). I'll decide tomorrow; it will come down mostly to size and functionality since they both have almost the same ratings for PSI and CFM.

Just found your thread - What a gorgeous 64! It helps when you've got something in excellent shape to start out with doesn't it? Much as you inspire me with the mods done, I will keep mine pretty much stock.

ctsplicer

Eh,spoil yourself,buy both blasters.Tell the wife you don't want one to feel lonely.As far as my car being in decent shape when I got it.This is my second go round with this car.I will have to dig up pictures of what it looked like 8 years ago when I got it.

oldsguybry

If money is not an object then buy the better one . If money is an object then but a cheap sandblast gun - $15-$20 , buy a couple cheap filters for water - about $5 or so each , take a big kitty litter container , poke a hole in the bottom for the feed line , layer some screens in the bottom so the sand dont plug the feed line , and elevate the kitty litter jug so gravity helps the sand flow .

ctsplicer

Just some pictures of the mess I started with 8 years ago.

ctsplicer

Sorry,didn't mean to hijack your thread

Allan R

Bryan, money is always an object. My priority is to keep functionality and results with minimum cash outlay. I need to see the units in person to make the best decision.

You've done very well. Who restored your dash? Ron Roth on this site (rroth1) does a snapping great job restoring these older dashes

check this dash

oldsguybry

ctsplicer you're car looks awesome !

ctsplicer

Thank you.I restored my dash.I do all my own work.Too cheap to pay for someone else to do anything.

oldcutlass

Allan I want to come visit and play with all your new toys. All kidding aside, the clock is ticking, and you my friend have not accomplished anything today.

ctsplicer

oldcutlass,you're right.I came on here looking for an update,I'm very disappointed.I really admire your work Allan.Need to get my daily fix.

sammy

Me 3 Allan .......need my daily update......

Ted

Allan R

Well, not quite quys. I actually did get something done today but not as much as I wanted to. Today I went out and got my new sandblaster! Princess Auto (weird name huh?) had these on sale for 1/2 price. So I went to have a look.


I decided that it would be a good idea to also get
- the light and 12V converter for the box
- 25KG of glass beads (should have got the 20/30 mix) very very fine grains
- moisture trap and 15' of hose to distance the moisture trap from the compressor. Good thing I have an ample supply of 1/4" NPT fittings.

Took a little bit of time to wire together because there are no instructions. I then put it on one of the garage benches and filled it with the glass beads


A short while ago I bought a (real olds) radiator overflow container. The mounting bracket was going to need cleaning and painting. It has some awkward inner angles close to the bottom that would be just awkward. Can't see them that well in this pic


Blast away. The very fine media leaves a very fine finish, but I think I'll go back and get some 20/30 glass which is coarser. It will cut through the rust and crud better. And it's only 10.00 / 50 lb bag. As you can see the finish is very nice, but I would still have to go over some of it again or light sand the top edge where the light rust is still showing.


I was really quite excited about the sandblaster and decided to go a little crazy. I cleaned the tail light housings, a thermostat housing and this support. I'll wait till tomorrow to show you the housings. Don't worry I'll post the fine media results and then the coarser results. Found out that doing this blasting means I don't have to take the wire harness out, I can get into those nooks and crannies quite easily. I am really impressed at how well the media cleans out those little pockets no other tool can get into.

Called AD today. They have the diff gutted and have blasted my control arms and brake drums. Curses! I was going to tell them I can do it now! I'll pick up the backing plates and do them. Hopefully the diff will be ready to come home this week. Then I can clean and paint it. Wait till you see what I'm planning. It will look truly amazing!

Can hardly wait to press in my new control arm bushings...

Lady72nRob71

Curse you guys with so much extras garage space!

So what is the PSI and CFM requirements of that little unit? If it will work with my compressor it would be worth kicking out the lawnmower...

Allan R

125 PSI and 5-15 CFM. I think I also need a slightly bigger compressor (sigh) I should have got a 40 or 60 gallon. It still works ok with the 20 gal, but I have to monitor how I use the air. Going to experiment with it some more tomorrow.

If you go for the larger floor model, the requirements change. 85-125PSI and same CFM. You could always put that outside the garage or bolt it to the patio. There is very little dust, and there is a port for a shop vac hook up. I tried that with mine but it created such negative air pressure in the box the gloves instantly went rigid and were hard to manipulate. I have a TX style shop vac - big and plenty of power.